GoPros and other small action cameras are increasingly useful to indie filmmakers and documentary filmmakers as they become higher quality and more durable. Action cameras like GoPros are especially useful for filmmakers because they can provide a unique point of view and since they’re cheap to the point of beingRead More →

Pictured above: a documentary film camera. In this article we’re going to break down several different types of specialty video cameras and still camera types, explaining what each one is used for. Sports video cameras – video cameras for sports have great fast autofocus features and often the ability toRead More →

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably interested in ball head tripods, the advantages they can provide you with, and what the best tripod with a ball head joint is. If you want to skip down the page straight to our recommended ball joint tripods, click here ↓. But first,Read More →

There are many reasons to consider using an external video recorder for film and television. In some cases, external HDMI or SDI video recorders can serve as better quality recorders than the camera they are shooting on, in other cases they may be a backup dual system recording method, andRead More →

Professional video recorders that capture ProRes or DNxHD video on solid state disks (SSDs) are compelling products these days, because of how much they speed up post workflows (skipping conversions) and also because of their increasing affordability. Although workflows and specific needs differ from case to case, whether you’re shootingRead More →

If you’re the parent of a young athlete or if you play any one of a dozen different sports, you might be wondering, “what’s the best video camera for sports shooting?” Selecting the best video camera for sports can be a difficult task because there are so many choices onRead More →

The Panasonic DVX 200 (check current price on Amazon) is out now and people are wondering: is it worth it? Although the DVX200 looks a lot like many other traditional pro video cameras, it’s actually a brand new type of camera under the hood. We’ll go over some of theRead More →

Let’s say you’re making a documentary film. You have your subject and… nothing else. While there are plenty of generic film equipment lists for fiction films, documentary films often need specialized equipment. So here’s our complete documentary film equipment list. Some documentaries may need only a fraction of these itemsRead More →

If you’ve got a excellent subject for a documentary film but a not so excellent budget, you’re probably wondering: what is the best cheap documentary camera? Filmmakers make hundreds, perhaps thousands of documentary films each year and their budgets range from a virtually nothing on the low end (think: shortRead More →

Up until recently the words “4K video camera” and “cheap” weren’t likely to be found in the same sentence, much less the same article. Unless of course that article contained the phrase “Now, 4K video doesn’t exactly come cheap…” Or to crack a joke about 4K cameras not being anywhereRead More →

Documentary filmmakers, especially documentary filmmakers at the beginning of their careers, are no stranger to low budgets. With more documentary films than ever before being produced each year, there’s less funding to go around. With so much new competition for funding, money can be hard to come by. Luckily, theRead More →

Update: The Panasonic DVX 200 kind of blew us away, so be sure to check that camera out as well. What are the best cameras for documentary filmmakers in 2018? The last several years have brought us several years of technology advances bringing high quality cameras to even lower priceRead More →

These days more and more small and light DSLRs are capable of shooting high resolution 4K video (3,840 x 2,160 UHD or Ultra High Definition video). And luckily, the prices for these cameras have been dropping rapidly as well. Here is a list of DSLRs that shoot 4K video: SonyRead More →

The Panasonic GH3 and GH4 DSLR cameras are becoming more and more popular amongst documentary filmmakers, and for good reason. Like other DSLR cameras, the Panasonic GH4 (and GH3 before it) feature interchangeable lenses and large sensors, both of which allow you to get razor thin shallow depth of field.Read More →

You’ve got the documentary film camera, you’ve got the microphones for documentary film. You’ve got a case, a tripod, but what are you missing? Here’s fifteen kit essentials for documentary filmmaking that you may not have considered yet… 1. Extra Camera Batteries (Check reviews & prices) Running out of juiceRead More →

About this website

We're here to help you find the best documentary camera for your documentary film. We've looked at all the available documentary video cameras on the market today from DSLRs to traditional video cameras and made our recommendations.

Many of our filmmaking gear reviews and how-to articles on video cameras and microphones are also suited toward making fictional indie films as well, so this is not purely a documentary filmmaking website.

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